The age of experience, Jimmy Choo’s strategic review, Logos a no-go, Schumer bill, Vauxhall’s fantastic four

Apple Store 5th Avenue, open 365 days a year | Source: Sillydog

But Will It Make You Happy? (NY Times)

“Scholars and researchers haven’t determined whether Armani will put a bigger smile on your face than Dolce & Gabbana. But they have found that our types of purchases, their size and frequency, and even the timing of the spending all affect long-term happiness.”

Jimmy Choo considers options for the future (Independent)

“The company’s owners are reportedly in talks with potential investment banking advisers which could result in a mandate for a full strategic review… options include a sale of the company, which would be expected to fetch between £450m and £500m. There was also talk that the business could be prepared for an initial public offering.”

Designer logos are a fashion no-go (Telegraph)

“The days of the big brash designer label, beloved of WAGS and minor celebrities, could soon be at an end as the world’s top fashion companies move to a new ‘discreet’ luxury.”

Schumer Bill Seeks to Protect Fashion Design (NY Times)

“The American fashion industry has been pushing hard over the last four years for copyright protection for its designs… after a year of negotiations, Senator Charles E. Schumer introduced a bill that seemed to satisfy the different sides of the fashion industry.”

The Fashion Four (Vogue.com)

“Charlotte Taylor, Georgia Hardinge, A.Hallucination and Lilee are Vauxhall Fashion Scout’s Ones To Watch this season. The designers will show their spring/summer 2011 collections at a back-to-back show during this September’s London Fashion Week.”

The FashionStake Diaries | Part II: Raising Funding

The FashionStake Diaries | Part II: Raising Funding: "

FashionStake Screenshot | Source: FashionStake

The FashionStake Diaries is a four-part series that giving a behind-the-scenes look at the crucial first months of a crowdfunding fashion startup, seen through the eyes of its founders. In Part I, we examined how FashionStake got from idea to traction with $1000. Today, the founders reveal how they were able to finance their business.

NEW YORK, United States — Our business school professors used to say that startups were about getting four things right: the Context, the Opportunity, the Deal and the People. Having focused our early efforts on understanding how fashion has changed forever with the rise of Web 2.0 (the Context) and how an online marketplace connecting designers directly with the public could yield benefits for everyone (the Opportunity), it was time to turn our attention to funding (the Deal) and acquiring talent (the People).

Not all investment paths are equal

Consumer internet marketplaces like ours typically have “land-grab” dynamics. Whether the marketplace is for hand-made items, for example like Etsy, or discounted deals, like Groupon, a first-mover can capture 80 percent market share with later entrants left to fight over the remaining 20 percent.

Network effects are the main force at work here: great startups reach a critical mass of suppliers and buyers, which attracts even more suppliers and buyers. It’s the secret sauce that makes competing with established marketplaces like eBay a tough task.

But of course, getting to critical mass fast usually costs money. To start with, you need to build great products and hire great people. This is the main reason why we sought out external investment.

We recently closed our first round of funding with Battery Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm, and a handful of fashion industry angel investors. We’ve found that working with a well-known VC has many benefits: they have a blue-chip reputation, are well-connected — especially when it comes to sourcing employees — and can participate in, or lead, the next round of financing. But we’ve also found that angel investors from within fashion are a great complement to a VC, as they’ve operated within the industry themselves and can offer targeted advice.

Fashion startups are different

For a fashion startup, investor dynamics are unique. The average VC specializes in a few “themes” (consumer internet, enterprise software, cloud computing etc.) and builds a portfolio of companies within those themes. Most fashion-tech startups we’re seeing now are two-sided platforms that would technically fall under the consumer internet theme.

That said, until now, fashion startups have not attracted significant investor attention, so there is sometimes an investor education process that needs to happen. We found that sending a pre-reading document to investors made meetings more productive. Still, many of the VCs we met with had never made a fashion investment before.

How to pitch investors

In our treks to and from New York and Silicon Valley, the world’s largest venture capital and private equity hub, we learned three important lessons. First, present a story, not a slideshow. When meeting investors for the first time, we learned to tell a succinct chronological narrative from the birth of our idea to the present day, focusing on key turning points and milestones.

Secondly, don’t contact investors. Well, at least don’t contact them directly. We were lucky enough to have generated enough interest in the press that VCs and angel investors came to us.

While this may be atypical, the best way to get to a VC is to be recommended by someone the investor trusts. Usually this will be a partner at their firm, a peer at another firm, a close friend, a startup lawyer or accountant, or a well-respected startup CEO. Your job as the entrepreneur is to get introduced to an investor through these people. We spoke to a 15 year VC veteran who told us he has never invested in a cold-call. Introductions matter.

Finally, focus on opportunity-team fit. After the first few meetings, we had focused our story on how our backgrounds and specific professional experiences fit the opportunity we presented. VCs and angels are always looking for the advantage of domain expertise in their teams. If you don’t have it, find it and your team becomes instantly more fundable.

But after all is said and done, it’s important to put the funding process into perspective. We think about it less as an end and more as a ticket to play.

Our Next Step: The Countdown to Launch

With the business model in place, designers signed, and funding secured, we’re on track for our September 1st launch. In our next posts, we’ll reveal our designers and share our reflections on the eve of launch. And most importantly, you’ll be able to click through and see the site for yourself.

Vivian Weng and Daniel Gulati are co-founders of FashionStake, a new online marketplace for fashion, launching September 1, 2010.

Britain’s bad habit, Online fast fashion, India’s opportunity, Garment district perennial, A return to craft

Industrial sewing machine, detail | Source: Act Now

Britain’s appetite for fast fashion is pushing workers into starvation (Guardian)

“Ethical trade has to be to ensure that workers are being paid a living wage… [including] food for her family and cover housing, education and health needs – Asian garment workers are currently being paid about half of what they need to do this.”

Fashion chains H&M and Zara launch online operations (Guardian)

“Several retailers have warned that consumer confidence is waning as people worry about their jobs… Online fashion sales, however, are proving remarkably resilient. Zara and H&M are two more in a long line of fashion stores that have moved into the online retail market.”

Fashion provides opportunities everywhere (Times of India)

“Designers from small towns as well as big cities have bright prospects… The future of the Indian fashion industry is very bright. Our designers have to stick to their basics and class and style in their work.”

A Garment District Perennial (WSJ)

“Although M&S flowers have graced J.Crew shoes, Teen Vogue photo shoots and Marchesa gowns (including the crimson dress actress Anne Hathaway wore to the 2008 Academy Awards), the company has struggled to stay in business amid competition from overseas.”

A Return to Basics, One Stitch at a Time (IHT)

“When Sara Checcucci opened her atelier in Galluzzo… she was astonished by the number of young people who would stop to gaze at her through the window as she worked. Later some of them came in and asked her to teach them her skills.”

First Person | Scott Sternberg says Fashion is Wonderful for an Entrepreneur who is Creative

Scott Sternberg at Lego installation at Opening Ceremony | Source: Selectism

Today, BoF brings you First Person with Band of Outsiders’ Scott Sternberg, followed later this week by the exclusive global debut of a new Band of Outsiders film directed by Debra Scherer for The Little Squares.

LOS ANGELES, United States — What made a 20-something junior agent at CAA, with no background in clothing design, think he could just up and create a fashion company and make it a viable business?

“Good question,” says Scott Sternberg, who in 2004 did just that, ditching his desk job to launch the LA-based Band of Outsiders with a limited collection of shirts and ties. Four years in, Sternberg won the CFDA Swarovski award for emerging menswear designer; last year he shared the top award with Italo Zucchelli of Calvin Klein. This September the hip brand, found at dozens stores around the world, will debut its fourth imprint, the entry-level womenswear line, girl.

Viable indeed. A runaway success, more like it.

“It was very clear that I was much more of an entrepreneur than someone who services clients,” Sternberg says now of his time as a Hollywood agent. “I was thinking, what would be a company be if I started it—is it a product or a service? Just sort of soul-searching in my late twenties to see what I wanted to do with my life. I was working with a few entrepreneurs, one of whom started J. Crew, and she encouraged me to consider [fashion] as something to do because the way I approach the creative process is similar to the way a clothing designer would. In a short period of time it became clear that the apparel business is incredibly entrepreneurial—the barriers to entry are really low, probably even more so now. All these stores and magazines are desperate for new, great things. If you have something honest and interesting and personal and cool and relevant and well-made, you can at least get started.”

The first step, Sternberg says, was honing the vision. “It was about being specific. I had such limited resources and such limited knowledge of how to make clothes. So I made what felt right and felt like something I would want—which were shirts and ties at the time—that I could make at the level that I would find that the price and the product would align. It’s a wonderful industry for an entrepreneur who is creative and can make things.”

As interest began to grow and those magazines came calling, Sternberg says he resisted the pressure to act outside of his comfort zone. “It was really about being small and pure and not doing anything if I wasn’t sure what the next step was. From a product perspective, I can make these shirts and ties really well. I have access to the factories and materials that feel right to me and I can get it at a price where there is a market for it. All those steps are set in stone. In terms of business model, there’s rules and margins, and all of that is trial-and-error to some extent, but keeping things small and doing everything myself for so long meant no overhead so I was able to always profitable and never take on outside investors even to this day.”

So, beginning to feel grounded, secure in his new enterprise, the young designer allowed himself to experiment. “There’s a product delivery cycle that’s set,” he said. “You’re gonna deliver Spring at a certain time, you’re gonna deliver Fall at a certain time. You’re going to show at these times—you fall into the groove of that. That structure is liberating. It’s challenging and it never stops but it allows you to fail because there is always another season.”

Spreading his wings with this newfound freedom, Sternberg went on an expedition to Scotland, researched plaid, created a collection informed by his adventure, and picked up the prestigious CFDA hardware for his troubles.

On the marketing side, however, he needed no such incubation period. From the very inception of the brand Sternberg’s deft imaging of the company with the geek-chic Americana of a Hollywood insider has been a sensation, and correlation between that image and the success of the business cannot be overstated, even if it is difficult to quantify.

“Brand image is intrinsically tied to the product,” he says, explaining. “Because it’s your clothes and clothes are about self-image. It’s not just the shirt and the buttons and the fabric. At the end of the day I think, for the loyalty factor, people are entertained by the brand and feel a connection to it. I hope they are coming back because their shirt fits really well and they wear it every other day.”

And Band marches on. The growing business is moving headquarters, and Sternberg has his eye on expansion. “As a creative person, how can you not,” he says. But, as he points out, returning again and again to his touchstone of purity, the new developments are not overreaching.

“The focus now is how to expand—not to rule the world or make tons of money—but to make a bigger business, a more sustainable business. You’re looking at scale. I do a lot of work here, create a lot of product and you want to sell it more places, because it makes it sort of worth it and more interesting. You test: does this have legs? I don’t want to be the Gap or even Ralph Lauren. Women’s was a market that was obviously enticing.”

But that line, Boy., which he launched in 2007, was not a reinvention of the wheel, dropping instead out of his clear concept for the line as a perfectly ripe fruit falls off the tree—when it is ready. “I just had a notion of doing a really focused collection offering everything that women loved about my menswear but couldn’t articulate to women. Meaning, really well-made jackets and shirts. But at this point it is a full designer-, whatever-, collection. I thought there was something there that I could offer,” he says.

And you agree. So crystalline is Sternberg’s vision and his business acumen one imagines that if he were to design a car or a building, not only would he likely pull it off, but it would be immediately recognisable as an entity in the Band brand.

Chris Wallace is an editor and writer based in New York. His work has appeared in Dossier Journal, i-D, Interview and T.

First Look: Vena Cava for Aqua

We managed to get our hands on some of Vena Cava’s much anticipated collection for Bloomingdale’s in-house line Aqua. And when we say “get our hands on,” we do mean that literally, as we modeled the collection.

Devotees of Sophie Buhai and Lisa Mayock won’t be disappointed by their collection for Aqua (and neither will their wallets). We loved that the line included a silk tee in one of the black and white prints Mayock and Buhai used in an earlier collection. As for the other standout pieces? A structured black double-breasted sweater coat with a tie at the waist is perfect for fall, and a super soft slouchy mauve-y tee with a mesh back is comfy and sexy at once.

Click through for more images of the collection, available exclusively at Bloomingdale’s and bloomingdales.com this fall.

Ask Chris Benz: How Do You Keep From Getting in a Rut?

Dear Mr. Benz,

How to do you keep from getting into a rut? Sometimes I feel like I’m running out of inspiration.

Yours, Needs a Recharge

Dear Needs-A-Recharge -

Inspiration is a tricky one, for sure.

On one hand, it is easy to be inspired by something specific much longer than one season, which unfortunately doesn’t work so well with the Fashion calendar. Obviously, there are things that should be continually inspiring … For me, it’s Katherine Hepburn, Lauren Hutton, Shelley Duvall–always a casual, glamorous, colorful character. On the other hand, a deadline may be approaching whereas you have to be inspired.

Something I sometimes do to ignite inspiration is research something you think you hate or seems completely boring – for me, it could be a hunting magazine, hot rods, sports memorabilia, that type of thing. Or, seemingly-dull time periods can also bore your brain into thinking of something interesting. Often, you will find something inspiring in these materials and then become obsessed.

Another good trick is to commit to a few hours of perusing eBay. I like searching broad search terms such as “chrome,” “mid century,” or the like. You might come across a vintage chrome ladle or something, whose shape could inspire an entire collection! If you can zone out and let your instinct guide you, some surprises tend to befall.

If all else fails and you’re still in a rut, get a giant iced coffee with a lot of sugar and just start sketching!

xx

CB

Got a question for Chris? Email him on askchrisbenz@fashionista.com.

Fashion News Roundup: The Situation’s Fashion Debut, Hermes Goes Hipster, Plus D&G’s Film Trailer

A Fashion Situation: Recently debuted on The Situation’s Facebook page, a first look from Mike Sorrentino’s collab with brilliantly-named casualwear brand DILLIGAF, which, naturally, stands for “Do I Look Like I Give a Fuck?” A new member of this gang of nickname geniuses, The Unit, models the Ed Hardy-esque tank. {Racked}

Harley does Hermes: Trying to figure out a new way to wear your Hermes scarf? Well, Hermes just launched J’aime Mon Carre (I love my scarf), basically a street style blog, but with a bunch of cool girls you’ve probably seen before (Harley Viera Newton, etc.) all wearing limited edition Hermes scarves in different ways. Unfortunately, the scarves will only be available at Colette in Paris come September. {Nylon}

Will shape-ups really shape you up? According to the American Council on Exercise, “simply no evidence to support the claims that these shoes will help wearers exercise more intensely, burn more calories or improve muscle strength and tone.” Skechers disagrees. Have you tried them? Do they work? {Huffington Post}

Dolce, Dolce, Dolce: Following in Tom Ford’s footsteps, Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce have a feature film due out this September titled “Quando, Quando, Quando.” The trailer for the black & white R-rated film is out now. {T Magazine}



Sienna goes to Blow’s: In another fusion of fashion and film, Sienna and Savannah Miller made a film of Twenty8Twelve’s Fall 2011 collection. It was filmed at Isabella Blow’s house and features Sienna herself alongside Sara Blomqvist. {Vogue UK}

Shoshanna Launches Jewelry Line for QVC Tonight; Win A Statement Necklace From The Collection

Shoshanna Gruss, née Lonstein, has been in the biz for a while now. She launched her eponymous line over ten years ago, and has done a few collaborations since. Her girlie dresses made to fit a more voluptuous figure developed a cult following (at least amongst the preppy UES set), so we asked the designer about her decision to do accessories, why she’s jumped on the QVC bandwagon, and how her Maltese pups helped her land the QVC deal.

So you’ve partnered with Judith Ripka for this line–how did that come about?

I’ve been a customer and admirer of Judith Ripka for as long as I can remember. After running into around our neighborhood while walking our Maltese dogs, we developed a friendship. I respect her as a mother, a business women and an artist. Accessories to me, are what make one’s look their own. It completes a woman’s outfit and expresses who she is, and who she wants to be. I have always wanted to do a jewelry line to complement my Shoshanna collection. It’s been a dream to be working on this business with an icon such as Judith.



You’re known for dresses and bikinis. Why accessories and why QVC?

I have always wanted to do accessories and the right opportunity came along. Working with QVC is amazing! They reach millions of homes and I’m able to offer product at an attainable price point.

To what do you credit your longevity?

As much as I am the designer I am also the customer–I was a young woman growing up in New York with all the resources afforded to me and I couldn’t find clothing that made me feel good. I knew I was not the only one out there and I think women really responded to that. I think about all different shapes and sizes when I design rather than one body type. My line is inclusive rather than exclusive and that really hit a nerve.

What’s the inspiration for the line?

I wanted my costume jewelry line to have the same versatility as my clothing line–a collection of pieces that can make a seamless transition from day into evening. I love being able to wear a dress to a daytime luncheon and then out to a concert later that night, with just a change of jewelry and accessories.

And if you like the statement necklace Shoshanna’s wearing in her photo, we’re giving one away (in green). Send us a message on our Facebook page telling us why you’re not ashamed to shop on TV. Best answer gets the bling.

Shoshanna’s Fashion Jewelry Essentials premieres tonight at 9pm and is also available on QVC.com.

Taco Tuesday is Taking Over the Hamptons

If you’re a frequent Taco Tuesday attendee and also happen to spend your weekends out in the Hamptons, get excited: The organizers around the weekly event are setting up shop in Riverhead’s new Hotel Indigo East End for the last four weekends in August. The series is aptly named Taco Tuesday…on Saturdays.

Participating brands–like La Force & Stevens and Barneys New York–will be hosting pool parties at the hotel and, per usual, guest bartending. Half the money made from tips and all cash thrown into the raffle bucket will benefit Housing Works. Oh yeah, and there will be yummy Mexican food.

Logistical details below. The kick-off party is this Saturday. Have a margarita–or two, or three–for us!

When: Every Saturday From August 14th, 2010 to September 4th, 2010 (8/14, 8/21, 8/28, 9/4) 11 am – 4 pm

Where: Hotel Indigo East End (POOL AREA) 1830 West Main St, Route 25 Riverhead, NY 11901 (631) 369-2200

Louise Roe on Leaving The City, Making Over “Plain Janes,” and Why Fashion On TV Doesn’t Have to be Mean

If you were bummed that City alum Louise Roe and her cheery British disposition didn’t stick around to oust Olivia Palermo as the face of Elle.com, you should check out her new show Plain Jane tomorrow night at nine. You might have missed the premiere of her new CW reality show Plain Jane due to premiere-hype over another certain fashion reality show on Bravo, but it’s worth tuning in tomorrow (or at least setting your DVR). It’s a fashion reality show that’s fun to watch not because it’s bitchy or insidery but because the “Plain Janes” are compelling and relatable and Roe transforms them with charm and a healthy sense of humor.

We talked to the rising fashion TV star about why she took on this project and ditched the City.

Fashionista: How do you set yourself apart from all the other outsized fashion personalities on TV (Rachel Zoe, Kelly Cutrone, Stacy London, Heidi Klum etc.,)?

Louise Roe: I don’t really think about setting myself apart to be honest – all those people you mention are brilliant, they have their own style, and I guess I also have mine. I suppose the English accent and sense of humor is a bit different.



Fashion is often depicted on TV as a cutthroat and even mean world but your show is all about the power of fashion for good. What made you want to take on this sort of show?

Exactly that. This is a very real show, with no script, no wannabe reality stars and a huge heart about it. I made it very clear I cared about each and every girl, we chatted and hung out both on and off camera.

We got to know you a bit on The City–what’s your fashion background?

I started out in magazines – my first job was an intern at UK Elle. I’ve written for In Style, Glamour, Vogue.com – I still write a column for MSN news called Front Roe.

Speaking of The City…what was that experience like? Were you really competing with Olivia? Is this show the reason you went to LA?

It was awesome fun! A great group of people. I go to New York a lot for work so it was brilliant to do some extra bits for Elle.com during fashion week. I got on well with Olivia but yes, the reason I came back to LA was for Plain Jane.

What are the best pieces of advice you offer these “Plain Janes”?

Don’t ever think you need to change yourself. My ethos is use and tweak what you’ve got, add some fab fashion and make-up into the mix and most of all, believe in yourself a little more. Women fear rejection from guys so much it can stop them going for what they want, but nothing ventured…nothing gained.

When you’re shopping for yourself and not Plain Janes–what do you like to wear?

Bright high heels! I love a bargain, but shoes are where I’ll spend my money. I also can’t go out without giant cocktail rings on each index finger.

Which celebrity would you love to make over?

Probably Angelina Jolie. I’d love to see her in bright colors. She goes from long skirts and flip-flops in the day, to vampy leather dresses on the red carpet. I feel like she needs a middle ground.

Why Denim Companies are All About Da Booty

“Question: What is that everybody has and pirates and thieves try to take?”

A Tribe Called Quest knew the answer was “Da Booty.” Denim companies get it too. (Of course Nelly was ahead of the game with his Apple Bottom Jeans.)

Just last week Old Navy launched their “Booty Reader” to give shoppers the chance to find the jeans to best fit their booty’s lifestyle. (My booty-reading experience didn’t go so smoothly but I’m talking with Old Navy and we’re working it out).

Yesterday WWD reported that Levi’s is launching a line of jeans called “Curve ID” which will utilize new technology to fit jeans based on a woman’s shape (read: ass) versus their waist size. Their tag line? “All asses are not created equal.”



Levi’s full-body scanned over 60,000 women across the globe to come up with three basic shapes–slight curve, demi curve and bold curve–which they believe will fit 80% of body types. It’s the solution to many common denim dilemmas: the jeans that fit your ass and thighs but not your waist, or fit your waist but are loose on the ass.

While Old Navy’s “Booty Reader” technology isn’t quite as sophisticated as Levi’s “Curve ID” the motivation is similar: to help women find the jeans that actually fit their ass. Because, as we all well know, a good pair of jeans has the power to make your ass look amazing.

How did you find your perfect pair of jeans? Who makes them?

Why the New Intellectual Property Bill Might Tranform the Fashion Industry

ABS won't be able to knock off dresses like this anymore.

Last week, we passed along the news that New York Senator Charles E. Schumer introduced a bill to the US Senate called the Innovative Design Protection and Piracy Prevention Act. It provides “very limited intellectual property protection to the most original design.”

The bill was passed by the House of Representatives in April 2009. It was then amended with input from different groups within the fashion industry, and is now being presented to the Senate. If it passes in the Senate, it will become a law. (As long as the President signs off on it, that is.)

We know that the law will help to protect original designs from piracy, but how? Susan Scafidi, an intellectual property attorney and author of the popular fashion law blog Counterfeit Chic, broke it down for us. PS: If you’re interested in fashion and intellectual property law, you should be following Scafidi. She teaches a fashion law course at Fordham Law School and has been instrumental in launching Fordham’s Fashion Law Institute, where she serves as Director.

But back to the bill. Here’s what it aims to do:

• Protect a new design for three years after it’s been put into production. While counterfeiting designer handbags and well-known monograms is criminal, younger designer whose pieces may be original–but not recognizable on a mass market–have had difficulty fighting fast fashion retailers that knock off a new silhouette or pattern. The law will protect very specific designs for three years, which means Allen Schwartz won’t be able to knock off Chelsea Clinton’s Vera Wang dress, or the next Marchesa red carpet favorite, for 36 months after it has debuted. “This bill finally allows designers to have their work recognized as an art, and receive the kind of protection that this article, paintings, and movies get,” says Scafidi.
  
• Spur creativity in mass retail. For years it’s been “accepted” that mass retailers would blatantly copy high-end designer items. Because they (presumably) won’t be able to do that anymore, retailers will probably begin allowing their talented designers to create more unique products. And that’s good for the consumer–it means more choice.
  
• Stop designers–peers–from knocking each other off. We tend to pick on the fast fashion retailers when it comes to copying, but contemporary and high-end labels do it, too.

This is the third time that the bill has been presented to congress since 2006–and lawmakers have attempted to get similar bills passed for the last 100 years to no avail. But it’s looking good this time. Hopefully, it’ll mean that in the future, we’ll have fewer opportunities to post under the title Adventures in Copyright.

Who, What, When, Where and Why: Inside the New W With Stefano and Lynn

Today, we had the pleasure of spending lunch at an exclusive preview of the new W magazine lead by Stefano Tonchi. Tonchi walked us through a slideshow of the September issue and even sat down with us at the end for an intimate Q & A.

Also lots of fun was sitting at Lynn Hirschberg’s table, who, in between bites of salmon and sips of iced tea, discussed the aftermath of her infamous M.I.A. article, being an Emmy nominee and how much she liked the upcoming film “Social Network.” We felt super lucky to get to listen to such smart, likable people as Stefano and Lynn, whose obvious passion for W lead us to be very optimistic about the magazine’s future. A breakdown of the session:



What’s new about the new W?

Lot’s of things! Dimensionally, the magazine is still huge (thank goodness), making ad campaigns and editorials all the more fun to look at. However, the logo is different – black and more italicized. And there is a tagline: “Who, What, When, Where and Why In The World of Style.” Fittingly, most of those words start with the letter “W,” but more importantly, the phrase is indicative of the direction Stefano has taken with the magazine.

The vibe we got from Tonchi’s spiel was that fashion is and always will be the central focus of W, but the new W aims to go beyond clothing by telling the story of the interesting people, places and things that are fashionable in their ability to change the way we live and think. More literally, the magazine itself is organized into the five sections Who, What, When, Where and Why. New online editor Christina Caldwell is also revamping the website to incorporate W’s five “W’”s. Wmagazine.com will also feature Lynn’s “Screen Tests,” which got nominated for three Emmys over at T.

The Cover Story

From her input throughout the discussion, it sounded like Lynn Hirschberg had a lot if not everything to do with the cover story. The three rotating covers feature eight up-and-coming American actresses including Emma Roberts, Zoe Kravitz, Jennifer Lawrence and YaYa DaCosta, who has a small role in The Kids Are Alright and is probably the first ANTM contestant ever to cover a major fashion mag. The story is mostly about 20-year-old Lawrence, who Hirschberg believes will be nominated for an academy award for her role in Winter’s Bone. Nineteen-year-old Emma Roberts is all grown up, photographed in nothing but a black bra and tells W, “I’ve never done a full-on sex scene…but we’ll see.” Hirschberg commented, “You’ve seen her before, but you’ve never seen her like that.”

Lynn explained that she liked the feeling of movement created by the three-cover format and that the group was chosen because they are all young, genuinely talented American actresses who are (hopefully–Hirschberg was admittedly a little worried about Kravitz after seeing Twelve) headed in a similarly smart, bold directions and avoiding what she called the “Chacecrawfordization” of most young American actors. Interpret that as you will.

Other Cool Stuff

There are lots of other amazing features to be found in the new issue, including…

- “Prematurely Plastic,” a story on premature plastic surgery

- “Tisci’s Tribe,” an in-depth profile on Givenchy’s artistic director and his muses

- “The East Enders,” A photo series and accompanying story about awesomely stylish kids from London’s East End, which Tonchi said he thinks of as “fashion without credit”

- A stunning 2-page close-up of model Lindsay Wixson’s lips

- “Last Exit to Brooklyn,” an Ed Hopper – inspired fashion story shot in Red Hook, Brooklyn

- More stunning fashion editorials with Lara Stone and Georgia May Jagger

-”Louise’s Last Year,” a somewhat haunting series of the last unpublished photos ever taken of the late artist Louise Bourgeois.

What’s Next?

According to Tonchi, he has barely begun incorporating all the new things he wants to do with W and the next issue will have “a lot of surprises.” On W’s talked-about September issue documentary film, he said, “It’s not really about the September issue at all.” It will be more about the whole process of revamping and creating a magazine and they are still working on it.

Our verdict: We like the new W. A lot. And literally more than half of the magazine is advertisements–which are annoying to flip through but also a hopeful sign regarding the health of the mag. We’re hoping this is just a September issue thing and can’t wait to see what other stories W has to tell us about the world of style.

Adventures in Copyright: Zara’s Take on the PS1

A Dominican Republic-based reader sent in this pic from Zara of what he calls “a veeeery poor and cheap immitation of Proenza Schouler’s PS1.” Indeed, the “leather” looks plastic-y and the black part appears to be canvas.

We love the PS1, because it’s an “It bag,” we guess, but it’s so simple and understated that it lacks the annoying fad aspect of most It bags that came before it. Still, lots of celebrities carry it around, so we’re not surprised someone like Zara would decide to create something similar. Not a very impressive knock-off of the Olsen favorite. However, at least the buckles and colorways are slightly different from the original, unlike Navoh’s knock-off, which was more of a straight-up copy and just as cheap-looking.